president obama headed back to d.c. from honolulu. and there is hope that some of this could pass before the new year. we'll see. >>> and a big star with a big heart. my first hand look at matt damon's quest to change the lives of people who live half a world away. trying to get affordable access to nearly a billion people around the world. who don't have access to clean water. welcome back to "early start," it's 27 minutes past the hour. >> let's get started with some of the news. blizzards battling the midwest, plenty more to come, unfortunately. >> oh, my god. we need to go. it's right there. >> a lot of damage reported overnight in mobile, alabama. a tower cam from cnn affiliate wala. blowing transformers, knocking out power to 20,000 customers. the other half of the extreme weather equation, a blizzard, much of the midwest getting targeted. the northeast coming our way. >>> and take a look at this. we want to show you live pictures of snow in seymour, indiana. you can see it's coming down pretty hard. you want to get to the forec